I am thinking to start breeding english budgies as a second hobby(my other hobby is raising chickens).Can anyone with experience help me out with getting started?I am looking for a "mentor" to kind of guide me into raising them sucessfully.I am thinking of joining a club (american budgerigiar Society)also very soon so I can learn the basics.I am not going into the hobby for money,I just want to enjoy and pleasure the art of raising them just as I do with my chickens.Maybe after a few years,I might even want to start exhibiting the birds.Anyone?Just let me know!
Thanks!

I've breed budgies, not English budgies, but American ones (3 times). Know how to hand raise babies in case problems arise and make sure you will have time for it, have all the supplies on hand in case you do have to hand raise, don't breed more than a couple times a year for each pair, give lots of nutritious foods to the parents when they're raising the babies, clean out the nest box every week (after the babies have hatched), make sure you use some kinda bedding in the box that the chicks will be able to hold onto with their feet so they don't get splayed legs. I reccommend carefresh or aspen.

Quote:Hello,
I have a couple question.
When you say nutritious foods,what kind of foods should I feed?Do I provide them with this diet year round and daily, even if they do not have babies?
Also,
What size breeding cage do you reccomend?

they should have a healthy diet anyway, so yeah, feed it year round and daily but when breeding I'd add eggfood and boiled egg for protein. Those can be given to them about 3x a week, even if they're not breeding. Other foods: variety of fruits and veggies (basically any that are safe for budgies Broccoli, parsley, and greens are especially healthy), birdie bread (bread that you make for budgies, there's recipes online. never feed bread meant for human comsumption, its not healthy for them. Always have a cuttlebone in the cage too.

A cage about 24 in long, 16 wide, 16 high. thats the smallest I'd go, bigger is always better tho. And if you plan on keeping the babies, the best cages are HQ (single and double), and the Caitec flight cage. The HQ single can hold 6 budgies, HQ double: 12, and Caitec: 15.